Up until now, there has been known a vehicle control apparatus that controls a lock-up clutch to suppress a power transmission capability from being lowered when the rotational speed of a turbine is not raised, what is called in a lost drive state, by accumulated bubbles in a torque convertor (see for example Patent Document 1).
The conventional vehicle control apparatus is constructed to include a detection unit, a determination unit, and a control unit. The detection unit is adapted to detect the rotational speed of an engine. The determination unit is designed to determine that the state of a torque convertor is in the lost drive state in which the power transmission capability from the engine to a transmission mechanism is lowered in accordance with determination conditions satisfied. The determination conditions of the determination unit include a first condition in which the state of the transmission mechanism takes a condition having the power of the engine transmitted to drive wheels, and a second condition in which the rotational speed of the engine exceeds a standard rotational speed corresponding to the state of the transmission mechanism. The control unit is adapted to control the lock-up clutch to suppress the power transmission capability from being lowered in response to the state of the vehicle when the state of the torque convertor is determined by the determination unit to be in the lost drive state.